Operation Pentameter Two
Combined operations of police and other security forces in the UK in 2008 used fear of white slavery and sex slave operations as a cover for increased arrests against sex workers, under the name "Operation Pentameter Two". A second parameter, a legal umbrella under which they can operate in ways they would not be allowed to ordinarily? It wouldn't be the first "Operation" with a double meaning. Politicians and the media, wittingly or unwittingly, misrepresented sex work as sex slavery on a massive scale, when there was in fact none at all to be found. Some parliament ministers even distorted the available facts, or worse yet, fabricated claims of "thousands of women...forced to work as sex slaves" The vast majority of arrests were of innocent people, not even charged, 'illegal immigrants' or those charged with possession, sex work, brothel management, even driving offenses; 384 of the 406 total, or almost 95%. 122 arrests, out of the Operation Pentameter Two report's stated total of 528, were FAKES.The revised report, obtained by the Guardian using Freedom of Information legislation, released by the Guardian Guardian investigation The Guardian investigated the results of the investigation, and after a legal battle, found "a very different picture" than what was claimed by Operation Pentameter Two in their report of July 2008. 122 of the 528 arrests announced by the security forces and police were fakes, wrongly recorded. For whatever reason, the forces were "trying to chalk up arrests which they had not made." Among the 406 real arrests, over 55% of those arrested (230) were women, and most were never implicated in trafficking at all. 10 of the 55 police forces not only did not arrest anyone, but never found any suspects to arrest. False figures Media coverage of the story MSNBC not only carried the story about the operation, under the lurid title "Sex Slaves: UK" on their network, but repeated the erroneous arrest and "rescued" statistics. The show aired over one and a half years after the Guardian story that decried the falsified statistics and debunked the value of the operation.Sex Slaves: UK, MSNBC, airdate 22nd May, 2011 They continue to repeat the show with no retractions, as late as April 2012, over two years after the Guardian story. Government acting on the basis of the false information The government produced a bill on the basis of the report, which was moving through its final parliamentary phase in Oct 2009. Sex workers believed that the bill would do more harm than good, giving disincentives to or penalizing safe behaviour, and giving relative rewards to behaviour that runs the risk of dangers that might exist. The bottom line, or, When Governments Attack The stated objectives of the Operation are in hindsight quite chilling. There is at best a lack of appreciation of the difference between sex workers and sex slaves, if not a deliberate attempt at obfuscation, with terminology such as "exploitation" But worst of all, there is no attempt at all to make the 'benefits' of disrupting the lives of a thousand citizens seem any more ethical than a pillaging expedition by a Viking raiding party. If Vikings had made it back with a cool half a million pounds sterling. From the Siren report on the Operation Parameter Two plans: Citations Category:Sex work Category:Police misconduct after the Patriot Act Category:Police misconduct Category:Security forces misconduct after the Patriot Act Category:Sex industry Category:Diversionary tactics Category:Scapegoating